y 



mmm of Missouri 



Jiistallation of !l)c Jfactiltn. 



ADDRESSKS BY MR. TUCKER AXD p-'lESIDEN'T MIXOR. 



COLTJMBIA, OCTOBER 2nd, 1860. 



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UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI. 



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ADDEESS 

BY 

J. W. TUCKER, ESQ., 

OF ST. LOUIS, 

<^^ M ..,1* uv 



AND 

EESPONSB 

BY 

BEN J. B. MINOR, A. M., 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. 




DELIVERED IN THE CHAPEL, OCTOBER, 2nd, 1860. 



^ COLUMBIA, MO. : 

WM. F. awrXZLER, PUBMSHKR, STATESilAK OFFIC 

I860- 



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PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD. 




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ADDRESS OF MR. TUCKER 



Mr. President and Gcntlernza of the Faculty : We assemble to-day, 
within these classic halls, under circumstances of unusual and 
impressive interest. 

We are not here to promote the success or secure the defeat of 
any political party ; we are not here to devise schemes for building 
railways; or incorporating banks; or opening new channels for 
commerce; or shaping, moulding, or directing any of the great 
material interests of the country. 

We aie iipre, I may be permitted to announce, for a purpose 
nobler in its aims, grander in its scope and comprehensiveness, and 
mightier and moro enduring in its results, than any of those I have 
indicated. We are here to institute a means, to create a power, to 
give form and life to an organism which, in its proper sphere, and by 
its legitimate influence, is destined to create and perfect the Institu- 
tions of government; to control and direct the intricate operations of 
finance, and the beneficent influence and results of commerce; to 
subjugate the wild elements of nature, and to foster and command 
the great material interests by the power of disciplined reason — by 
the divinity of mind ! 

To observe these ceremonies, almost solemn in their import, we 
have assembled, in deeply attentive audience with us, this vast 
concourse of people : the venerable and the aged — the gray headed 
sage — the representative of a generation passing away — the jurist 
and the statesman — the calm pious teacher of sacred truth, care- 
ful of the interests of religion — the thoughtful parent whose sons 



are to be educated — woman, in the exercise of her watchful inter- 
est and unselMi sympathies with the well being of society — and gay 
and generous youth, with the ardent hopes of young and bounding 
lifo-^all —all are here to witness the imposing demonstrations cf this 
occasion. It is well they are here 1 Well, that they meet to assist in 
these exercises. They are parties to our great purpose. Upon them^, 
representing the people of the State of Missouri, as well as upon you, 
c^entlemen, depend the successful accomplishment of those high aims 
Ld wise designs, which induced and justified the establishment of 
this University. 

1 have ventured to affirm that the work we come this day to 
inaugurate, is a work of paramount importance — that it is of higher 
moinent to tl-.e true interests of man and the enlightened progress of 
human soci.ly, than any mere outward and material interest m the 
business pursuits of human life. The progress and execution of this 
work - the modes and processes of its accomplishment-are so silent 
and unobtrusive -so quiet and gentle-so gradual m time, so 
undemonstrative in action- that the busy world, i. its fevered 
excitements and morbid impatience of result, is liable either to t.ke 
oo notice of the work, or to underrate and misconceive its dignity 
and importance. Our idea here is beautifully illustrated by reierence 
to one of the sublinae passages of sacred history, where the Divine 
presence was symbolized in one of several phenom.na ol nature, 
The mighty agencies hero brought into operation, manifest themselves 
not through the medium of the earthquake; nor in the rush of the 
whirlwind; nor in the flash of leaping flame and fire ; but in the tones 
of that sfHl small voice, which teaches the truths of wisdom ; reveals 
the wonders of science; unfolds the mysteries, and exhibits the 
wondrous order and harmony of great Nature's laws,- In our fancy 
let us come to-obscrve, unseen, these agencies in operation ; to inspect 
the method by which such results are obtained. 

And while the planter employs the axe, the plow, the scythe ; 
while thomechanic plies his implements; while the merchant con- 
ducts the exchanges and ponders of profit and loss; wmle the 
devotees of pleasure are giddy, and the sons of toil are bu.y ; a few 
calm, collected, earnest minds -the Masters and disciples of science 
and irt-nro here assembled apart, and have separated themselves 
from'ttie excitements of the world without. They form into classes 
and separate into distinct groups, and meet together in ditlerent and 
secluded halls. Fancy that we,- the unclerical outsiders -pass, 
unseen, from room to room, to inspect, as I remarked, the means 
employed, from which proceed such important and valued results; 





ajid that in this tour of inspection, we catch only fragments of the 
initroductory lectures. 

" PnOFESSOll OF LaInGUAGES ! " 

'' Professor of English language and literature ! ''' How formal — 
how dry — how technical, these phrases sound to the common ear! 

Nevertheless, let us enter, and observe the workings o: tbe power. 
Let us see how these magicians summon fo;th living spirits from this 
heap of dry bones ! 

And now we find this group earnestly engaged in the study of 
loords — WORDS, that hold a place midway between material and 
spiritual tilings — at once the vehicles and statuary of thought: 
words, that, in the present state of being, render the creations of mind 
communicable; words, that have rendered the poetry, eloquence and 
philosophy of other nations, of remote periods and distant realms, 
imperishable : vv^ords, that verify the records of History and demon- 
stra'.e the solemn truths of lievelation ! By an easy process of rea- 
soning, and by argument unanswerable, it can be shown that the words, 
truth, error; virtue, vice; sin, punishment; atonement, pardon; 
never could have existed but as the outward expression, the vocal 
utterance, of ideas present to our consciousness ; and these ideas could 
have no existence, if the great and solemn facts, of which they are 
but the mental representatives, did not also exist. And when we find 
the words. Creator, Redeemer ; Omnipotent, Omniscient; written, and 
from time immemorial existing in our language, we find so many 
multiplied evidences of tiie existence and attributes of Deity,, un- 
accountable on any other hypothesis than the truth of Revelation. 

The Professor is engaged in an e:-:po3iDion of the eleme»its, the 
beauties and the truth of language. He is showing that the history 
of a people miy be most truthfully learned from the history of their 
language ; that the pecularities of mind are exhibited by the peculiar- 
ites of language ; — and that moral character is depicted with unerring 
accuracy, })y the icrni^ that flow from our mouths. So truly are our 
words a faithful interpreter of the heart, — so truly is language the 
mirror of the soul, that the pen of inspiration has recorded — ■ 

" By thy icord^; ilioa shall be justified , and by thy words thou shait be 
coudeinned." 

And from this exhaustkss repository of beauty, of truth, and of 
knowledge, — the philosophy of v,'ords, — the Professor is instructing 
his pupils how to draw *;hence, iv<rrds Jor the work of lifo; words for 
the Jurist; words for the Orator; words for the Poet; words for the 
Philosopher ; words for tiiePnlpit; words for the Forum; words of 
fancv. and words of ,'U7/^';iT; words of love, and of indignation; words 



of CGinmandj and of submission; words of defence and words of 
confession and invocation ! Tell me, sir, are not here elements of 
power? Is the ^g;i mightier than the sivord^ Is the orator more 
potential than the leader of armies ? Do the luords oi Demonthenes, 
arrest the progress of the cohorts of Macedon ? Then, sir, is the 
Professor, who teaches the history, philosophy, power and uses of 
language, a great magician in his sphere ! In that same quiet room 
are forged polished weapons of electrical power, to be used in the 
struggles of human life, to compel the reason and to touch the heart ! 
Move we now to another room, to observe another group. The 
Master lectures on Astronomy ; how earnestly his young auditors 
attend ! They learn that we are living on the surface of a star ; that 
it is one of unnumbered worlds, that move in boundless space, regu- 
lated by a law; that each revolves in its own sphere, in its own time, 
related to its own system ; that these rolling worlds cross each others' 
paths where no landmark indicates the point of intersection; that 
their periods of revolution vary from days and weeks, to centuries of 
3'"ears, and yet there is an absolutely minute and perfect coming up to 
time, and no collision — no accident ever occurs. That some of these 
grand orbs of light, rolled out into the realm of space by the /mt of 
Divine power, and started on their everlasting journeys, the subjects 
of reciprocal action and reaction, giving and receiving genial influence, 
— are so far removed from our orb, that though created in the dim ages 
of the past, tlie rays of liglit from those luminous worlds are only 
nozv reaching our earth ! That na power of numbers — no method 
known to science, by any effort of the mind, can get standing ground to 
start upon in the vain attempt to compute the distances from our 
planet of these stupendous creations ! And yet that all these un- 
numbered worlds, in their varied spheres and unmeasured distances, 
bear no proportion to that realm of space, that stretches upward, 
downward, outward, beyond, immeasuri^ibly beyond, — that may forever 
continue to be peopled with other worlds of light by the creative energy 
of Him "that inhabiteth eternity !"— The youthful student of 
Astronomy, subdued, appalled by the greatness of the subject he seeks 
to comprehend, finds a resting place for his wearied fancy and powers 
of reason, only in the ccmforting idea of an Ahnighty power; listens 
with subdued delight, to the music of the spheres, and begins to learn 
the sublime meaning of Angelic adoration — 

4 "Allekiia! the Lord -~ God- - Ommipotent rcigneth ! " 

Here, sir, is a field for expanding the faculties of the youthful 
mind.- Here is material for thought — and the elements to foster 
immortal genius. 



Let us turn now where the devotees of science worship at another 
shrine. 

The Chemist — the Geologist — the Electrician — the Philosopher 
and High Priest of Natural Science — is conducting his wondering 
disciples through the Temple where the secret powers of Nature hold 
their hiding place. 

Observe that font of clear water, saith the Master; here U the 
liquid element that sustains all life ; abstract it, and decay blights the 
animal and vegetable world, with the stroke of inevitable death. 
This wonderful agent converts the rugged iron into the purple element 
of the blood that gives vitality to your frame and mantles your cheek 
with the crimson glow of health ; out of lime it forms the strong cement 
of your bones; out oi flint it gives the material of strength to the st^em 
of wheat, the stalk of corn, the trunk of oak ; upon its bosom float 
the navies, and at the bidding of science, it expands into an invisible 
form, and propels the freighted ship through storm and winds and 
waves ; the shriek of every locomotive is a psean, whose echo fills the 
Temple of Science. To extinguish fire this fluid is used, and yet, at 
the behest of science, it divides into elements, that would burn up 
adamant, and calcine the solid globe on which we dwell ! 

See, saith the Master, these fragments of stone, these bones and 
shells — these petrified plants and animals; these are the mystic sym- 
bols that record the age of our Earth and indicate the periods of 
change — her transitions from one state of formation and inhabitation 
to another, with more certainty than History tells of revolutions, or 
change of kingdom and dynasty. 

And here is the store house of the lightning ; mysterious agent 
of Nature, both to preserve and to destroy! Lo ! it is everywhere; it 
dispenses life to the green fields and waving forests; it is diffused 
through all nature, it is in the earth, and in the sky — in the water, 
and in the air — in the light, and in the thick darkness : it vitalizes 
the body of the sleeping infant, and rends the solid rock ; it binds to- 
gether the soul and body — connects the spiritual essence with flesh 
and blood, through the instrumentality of the brain and nerves — and 
it discharges as the bolt of death from the bosom of the cloud, spread- 
ing desolation in its trackless course. 

''It lives through all life — extends through ail extent; 
Spreads undivided — o^^erates u.nspent!"' 
At the command of science, behold these lightnings come and 
say "here we are;"in obedience to her will they are harnessed to the 
car of thought and speed away over the land and over the seas, bear- 
ing messages of kindness, orders of business, and words of greeting ! 



8 

Another Master has a group around him and lectures on the ap- 
plication of the science of Mathematics, both to useful works in 
practical life, and to operations of the intellect in the regions of the 
actual and the possible. 

The knowledge of these laws, saith the Master, the application of 
these principles as here explained, is indispensable to the creation of 
every mechanical power ; to the lifting of every ponderous body ; to 
the production of motion ; to the regulation of speed ; to the erection 
of a house; to the construction of a bridge; to the projecting of 
aquiducts ; to the building of railways ; to the planning and execution 
of fortifications ; to the navigation of ships ; to measure the ocean ; 
to weigh the earth ; to prescribe the circuit of a star ; to fix the 
periods of eclipse to the heavenly bodies; to survey bounds and the 
stretch of spheres, never travelled by angel or spirit ; and this proud 
science falters and forbears, only when it would attempt to compass 
the ways of Him, who siteth " in the circuit of the IIeavens"and flies 
with a cherub on " the wings of the wind ! " Mathematics and learn- 
ing are synonymous, insists the Preceptor; the mind can become 
truly great, only by travelling up the steep and difficult acclivities of 
this great science ! 

Let us enter, last, the apartment, where we are taught the a-aatomy 
of mind^ and the philosophy of our moral nature. 

If, observes the Professor, the science which deals with matter^ 
with visible substances, has excited your wonder — here, in this field, 
the interest must be more sustained and intensified, until the mind 
is lost in amazement, at its own dignity ; its indestructible nature ; its 
ever expanding capacities, and the eternity of its being. Conscious 
of its great powers, and the unassailable security of its existence, this 
god-like spiritual, thinking personality, we call the mind, looks out 
from its temple, on all material things, defiant of all the elements 
that may threaten our physical life ; nor sword, nor scaffold ; nor frost, 
nor fire ; nor fortune's smile, nor fortune's frown ; nor accident of life, 
nor condition of material things, can reach this essence divine; or 
arrest its etherial march ; or subtract one second from the cycle of its 
duration ! Do you ask what is the mind ? where dwells this wondrous 
thing? I answer — it hath nor length, nor breadth; nor form^ nor 
color; it hatji nothing in common with matter — nothing resembling 
ought we have seen or heard; yet it dwells in that matter; muscle 
obeys it ; the nervous fluid is its hand-maid, and electrical influence, 
its messenger. This divinity dwells in,and makes one with the matter 
of our bodies; but how spiritual and material essences thus blend — 
how the wvmalerial, the purely spiritual — operates through the mate- 



rial ; why the brain and nerves and muscles obey its mandates for k 
score, or century of years, and then die and decay if the Lord of the 
tenement depart ; we can no more comprehendj than we can under- 
stand how Three are One. 

The whole nature and action of this spiritual being, it must be 
understood, are the subjects of fixed laws; it knows ~ it feels — it 
determines by laws or principles of action as certain as the fact of its 
own existence. 

And when these principles are investigated and applied to our 
moral nature, you will discover that wonderful chain of sequences 
that runs through all our moral relations; determines every question 
on the ground of fitness; and demonstrates the indivisible ccmnectiou. 
between wrong and suffering; between transgression and penalty, by 
the inseperable relation of cause and effect. 

In the majesty of invincible truth, I fancy that we hear the Phi 
losopher announce to his auditors : 

" These conclusions of the philosophy of our moral nature —these 
judgments of the moral law— -are not right and proper — are not 
just and neccessary, hccav.se they are written in the code of Eevelation; 
nay, — God has declared them because they are right^ and proper^ and 
just ; and proceed, of necessity, out of the nature and relations of rational and 
accountable beings'' 

But we must retire, and close this fancied, hurried visit, to these 
laboratories of learning where from the will-springs of knowledge, the 
Merchant, the Planter, the Poet, the Sculptor; the Jurist, the States- 
man ; the Philosopher and Divine of our country's future, are being 
furniushed, each for his vocation. 

I have ventured to characterize the work here to be accomplished 
— the interests of learning, as among 1 he highest interests of society. For 
a moment let us contemplate the influence of scieiicc upon the useful 
arts, and business pursuits of life. Suspend the operations of the tele- 
graph; withdraw the power of steam; take from the manufacturer of 
metals, drugs, paints and dye stuiis, the knowledge of fticts obtained 
from chemistry; take from the navigator and engineer the knowledge 
obtained from Mathematics and Astronomy; commerce, paralysed^ 
stagnant, would languisli and die. Order, certainty, speed, would no 
longer attend our labors, and comfort would bo banished from our 
homes. But if we go one step f^irther, and deprive ourselves of the 
benefits, derived from the inventions of mechanical science; stop the 
loom and lock up the Printing Press ; wo should present an order of 
civilization little superior to that 

'^ When wild iu woods, the noble savage ran." 



10 

Sir, have not your patience and amiability been sometimes tried 
hy some type of that class of persons, who, possessed of some money, 
and regarding the accumulation of wealth as the chief end of life, 
exult in aftecting to despise the claims of learning and the learned ? 
who decry science, and estimate the schools as of small value ? The 
Dullard ! He does not recognize his obligations to his benefactress. 
Why, sir, science steers his boat ; navigates his ship ; drives his loco- 
motive : opens up the channels of his commerce ; weighs and mea- 
sures his goods, and estimates their value. Science puts a hat upon 
his head and shoes upon his feet. Science feeds him ; science clothes 
him; science rears a house for his shelter; v/arms it in winter, venti- 
lates and cools it in summer and spreads his table with rich viands. 
If he is sicll, science cures him ; if he break a bone, science mends it. 
Science l^eeps time for him, makes music for him, sends him the 
morning paper and if he be old, gives him eyes to read it with. 
Science writes his will, administers his estate, and secures the inhere- 
tance to his children. " fool and slow of heart to believe," if he 
would entitle himself to the respect of enlightened minds, and leave 
behind him a memorial of his existence, let him be liberal toward 
the interests of learning : for science alone can give hiui an immor- 
talit}'^ on earth ! 

But independently of the v/holesome and vital influence of 
science upon the material prosperity of a State, it is indispensable to 
the culture and development of our social, moral and intellectual 
being. Every reflecting mind feels for itself and utters to its own 
consciousness — I am of more value and higher dignity than the 
produce of fields, or the commodities of commerce. lam — /think 
-7- /live forever. " Man shall not live by breocl alone," he must have 
food, but that is his lowest want; and he may nob live by bread alone; 
he lives by knowledge; he lives by taste; he lives by the logic of 
reason ; by the beauty of earth and sky; by the poetry of nature and 
of life, by the gushing sympathies of the heart; by the divine prin- 
ciples of faith, hope and charity ! And he who is indifferent to these 
developments of our nature can justly claim a place in the scale of 
being, but little elevated above that of tlie mere animal life. 

We claim, then, for the work vv-e this day inaugurate — for the 
interests of science, p. dignity — an importance, second to none but 
those of Eeligion, T^ith which they ought to be forever blended. 

But, Gentlemen, in the execution of the work, you this day enter 
upon, you will not always tread a pathway of flower?, and recline 
upon beds of roses. You have before you, if yon are true to your 
liigh mission, a work of labor and toil; a work of anxious care- and 



11 

ceaseless vigilance ; a work requiring the exercise of all the virtues 
that distinguish the good and the great. From iviikin, you will be 
called on to encounter the occasional exhibitions of youthful indis- 
cretion ; to repress youthful turbulence ; to discounage tendencies to 
vicious habit; to stimulate the idle and. the slothful; to polish the 
manners and develop the character ; and to hold up before your 
pupils the glittering prizes in the fields of manly exertion, that will 
excite and kindle a noble ambition for effort and achievement. Here 
is work — a work, indeed, which, whil^ it is difficult and delicately 
responsible, is attractive, because of the glorious results to be attained ! 
But the chief difficulties of your station and office come not from 
within, but from without. You are the officers of a State Universitij. The 
State is nothing else but the peojok of the State ; and among these cons- 
tituent elements, you will find indeed, " many men of many minds." 
One man, of one party in politics, or one sect in religion, is greatly 
exercised for fear some other man's politics, or some other man's reli- 
gion, will be promoted by the University, at the expense of his politics 
or his religion ! And he very much desires therefore, to have his poli- 
tics, and his religion represented in the Faculty and solemnly installed 
in the University. And if you don't swear by his political creed, and 
if you don't worship b}'' his liturgy, why then, you are infidels and 
heretics all, and must be put down ! And to put you down, he goes to 
tearing down the University. But you are here to hold up, build up, 
and keep up the University; and your duty, as true men, must make 
you sufferers, therefore, to a greater or less extent, by the fanaticism 
of these crazy malcontents in Church and State. 

Now, while I hold that no text-book should be introduced ; no 
lecture delivered ; no influence exerted in this University, which 
breathes aught else than a spirit of loyalty to tlie State of Missouri, 
and fidelity to her Institutions; I hold further, that it would be a 
shameful desecration of this Institution cf learning — a depraved 
perversion of its legitimate influence, to make it the organ, or the 
creature of political tricksters; to make it the instrument of prop- 
agandism to serve the purposes of sectarians, or partizans, in Church 
or State. 

Let it be proclaimed from the housetops, — let it be written in a 
book, — that these grounds — these halls — these appliances — this 
seat of learning — tliese learned men who compose the Faculty, their 
labors and their lives, are all consecrated to the claims of science ; to 
the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge ; to the culture and train, 
ing of the Sons of Missouri for a future of glorious achievement; and 
that no embroiling, disturbing, malignant element must ever be per. 



12 

mitted to enter. Sir ! whenever you observe these dark spirits of dis- 
cord attempt to invade these peaceful groves, this calni, intellectual 
atmosphere, raise your voice, and from the altar of science, exorcise 
the foul apparition : 

^^ Procid ! O Procul 1 este profani!" 

But, sir, you may be tempted from without, by an appeal in the 
name of patriotism, to come abroad and do the State some service, in 
the education of popular opinion, and the settling of grave questions 
of State policy. 

Be not thus deceived. Kegard the exalted station you occupy 
To all such appeals, return for answer the words of Israel's leader : 
" We are doing a GREAT WOEK ; we cannot leave it and co7m down 
to you; for why should the work c?ase while we leave it and come 
dozen to you /" 

Other disturbing influences may come in the form of unreasoning 
bigotry, and demand your submission and service, in the sacred name 
of religion ; and upon your refusal to obey, it will threaten your exter- 
mination. Be not surprised at this ; for there is no spirit, so inacces- 
sible to reason ; so implacable and unmerciful, as fanaticism wearing 
the name and clad in the habiliments of religion. lience the sarcasm 
of the sceptical poet : 

" Christians have burned each other — quite persuaded 
That all the Apostles wouild have done as they did." 

When you encounter the disturbing influences of which we now 
speak, never consent to argue the offered question, for reason is lost 
on such minds; do not array yourself in the attitude of combat; 
for tliat would only dignify your assailants and make the 
cbntest perpetual, in which tliere are no laurels to win, and no 
good to accomplish. But retaining your high position on the hill of 
science, look down and survey only to pity this morbid development 
of human nature poisoned, — of human reason unhinged, by a malig- 
nant spirit that steals for its purpose the name and semblance of our 
holy religion. Be pursuaded, that, in this line of action, you can 
commit no error; for nothing intolerant; nothing vindictive; nothing 
belligerant; nothing persecuting, can live, breathe, or have its being, 
in the life of a pure christiimUt/. 

While we should hold that this, or any other Institution of learn- 
ing, which did not inculcate the principles of a high and pure moral- 
ity ; which did not teach the evidences and cardinal truths of revealed 
religion, as part and parcel of its system of general education, would 
be sadly derelict in its duty, would bo treacherous to its high mission, 
would be fraught with as much of curse as of blessing to the Avorld : — we 



13 

hold further, in connection with the same principle, that, to exert 
the influence of State Institutions of learning, in favor of some intol- 
erant sect or party in religion, would be a prostitution and perversion 
of its influence by an act akin to sacrilege. 

But as I have already ventured to hint, there are those who, in 
the name of religion, which is "from above, — first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle and easy. to be entreated," — are ready to make war, like 
Mahomed, upon all who dare to reject the true faiih^ as expounded in 
their creed. These are disturbers of the world's peace and quiet. 

Now, if some zealot of a faith that works by hate, and who 
professes to do many wonderful things in the name of a Mesiah whose 
divine, loving, meek and gentle spirit, he has never known, — comes 
to pollute the places consecrated to science, and to require you to 
pronounce his shibboleth, — rebuke him, reverently, in the words of 
the sacred oracles : 

" Put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest 
in holy ground!" 

But after all your exertions, — after all of labor and of duty, you 
can, by yourselves, only ?-/imz! and deserve b\iq.cq?>s. Only the people of 
the State of Missouri, by an enlightened support and generous patron- 
age, can crown your labors with that complete success so devoutly 
sought — so dear to every patriotic heart. 

In this consistent effort — tliis direction of popular sentiment, 
the good people of the Town of Columbia, have immediate and pecu- 
liar responsibilities. With that people, face to face, I this day plead 
the cause of the State University, Let them see to it that the Uni- 
versity be sustained. Scathe and blight with your indignant frown 
every disturbing and sinister development. Stand by the Faculty in 
part and in whole. Sustain the administration of discipline. Let 
the young men, who come up here in the character of students, dis- 
tinctly understand, that they can retain a proper social recognition, a 
cordial sympathy and respect in this community, only by a cheerful 
conformity to rule, and a manly observance of the laws of decorum 
and propriety. Begin right, ^9?.'. Fix the standard high, and main- 
tain it with determined, unshrinking firmness. Let these gentlemen, 
who have been summoned from distant parts of our great country, 
feel that this is their home; that they and their families are received 
as friends into the bosom of this enlightened and hospitable com- 
munity. 

The State of Missouri has — it can have — but one State Universi- 
ty. It is the child of enlightened patriotism. It is the sole heir, in 



14 

this respect, to all its parent's regards. We have Schools, Academies^ 
and Colleges, many; all useful in their spheres, and all of which 
should be made useful auxiliaries to this, as the head-quarters of 
science. There is but one State University, and there cannot, properly? 
be any rivals to this Institution. 

There are mr.y local and denominational Colleges in the State, 
doing signal service in the cause of general education. But it can be 
no disparagement to these various literary enterprises, to afSrm that 
they can never substitute the University; they can not stand in stead 

— they cannot compass, for the State, the work, the special designs 
and purposes of the Legislature, in the founding of one great central 
State Institution of learning. The work done — the effect produced 

— the influence exerted upon the minds and characters of young men 
at College, is accomplished, oyihj in part, by the study of text books. 
Other varied and potent agencies contribute largely to the general re- 
sult. Among these agencies must be noted, geographical position ; 
restricted or enlarged associations ; local or sectional influences ; and 
the character of current popular sentiment, respecting questions^ 
either in the religious or in the political world. All these and many 
other unnoticed causes operate necessarily in giving tone and bias, 
opinion, creed and character to the educated young men of the 
country, who, in their turn, mould the institutions of the State and 
influence for better or for worse the fortunes of society. Now, having 
respect to these influences alone, as the necessary attendant agents in 
the work of educating our youth, it must be apparent, that so far as 
they are merely local; or merely sectional; or merely, or mainly 
sectarian ; so far as these moral forces involuntarily tend to trammel 
the mind by a committal to the narrow tenets of sect or party in, 
government or in morals, instead of furnishing the mind with dis- 
ciplined powers, and leaving it free to range through the fields of 
rational inquirj'-, and to seek for truth, broad, high, deep, luminous, 
consistent, connected, redeeming, disenthralling truth, anywhere, 
everywhere, — to that extent, at least, the result is not the highest and 
most desirable development of character. In such case, both in the 
science of government, and the teachings of theology; in social, in 
moral and political philosophy, as a foregone conclusion, not easily nor 
frequently changed or modified by after inquiry, — " one is of Paul ; 
aiiother, of Apolias ; another, of Cephas; another, of James;" and 
instead of an agreeing union of educated minds in some great lines 
of thought, with common purpose, and harmony of action, — the 
great moral power of educated intellect is brought into opposition^ and 
expends its forces and neutralizes its effective energy in conflict with 



15 

itsdf. "Without discussing further this view of the subject, which we 
give up now, unwillingly for want of time, — I take this occasion to 
tell the enlightened, patriotic men of the State, that the State Uni- 
versity, well-officered and well-sustained, will do more to secure unity 
of counsels in government; unity of sentiment in the great public 
heart ; union for public effort at home in time of peace ; and union 
for defence in time of threatened danger from abroad, than any other 
one instrumentality within the limits of this great commonwealth. 

In these remarks, I disclaim any — the least — opposition to 
denominational schools and colleges. Keligicus denominations have 
been useful educators everyvv-here, and deserve all praise ibr their 
enlightened action in this respect. 

By a denominational college, I understand nothing more than a 
proper literary institution, scientific and classical, which has been 
instituted and is mainly patronized and maintained by the enlight- 
ened liberality of some one of the Christian denomination-^. And 
that such institutions are, in no wise, designed, to inculcate the reli- 
gious tenets of that particular denomination. That the College is 
open to the patronage of the general public. Tliat there is nothing 
exclusive in its laws, usages, or the benefits to be conferred ; and 
nothing in the subject matter of its teachings, tliat can bias the minds 
or offend the religious opinions of any class. To such an institution, 
there can be no object ion, in the requirements of the most enlarged lib- 
erality. A relation of rivalry and hostility, between such institutions and 
the State University, would be an unwise and unnatural antagonism, 
injurious alike to all the great interests involved. Surely the field is 
large enough and there is appropriate work for all. 

But there is a broad distinction, between a dcaomi national College, 
and a College confessedly 5cc'fffm;i; against the latter class, I would 
enter my protest. I would not patronize a sectarian College, even if 
devoted solely to the interests of the Church I love. 

There is every reason why the Christian denominations should 
exert their great influence to promote ths cause of education; for in 
this way the Church also promotes the cause of morals and good gov- 
ernment ; but there is nothing which justifies, in my mind, the 'iiarrow 
policy, of a school for Presbyterians, a school for ^Methodists, a College 
for Baptists. 

While we hold our own religious opinions ; while we arc true io 
our own religious communions, we can feel the common impulses of 
patriotism, as citizens of Missouri ; and we can together sustain her 
chief Institution of learning. The being a Christian ought not — cart- 



16 



not '— make a man the less a Patriot Here is broad ground on which 
all can meet ; all churches — all religions — all sections — ail parties, 
loay send their sons up here to record their names and to pledge their 
loyalty to the State in a baptism at the font of knowledge ! 

Surely the leading and influential men of the State, in every county 
i-nd neighborhood, will exert their proper influence to sustain their 
©wn University. Surely this Institution can never appeal in vain to 
the liberality of the State. Surely the Legislature, coB-posed of chosen 
men, can never permit this great interest to be crippled and mangled 
"by angry discussion and unnecessary legislation ; surely they will hold 
it; a subject for legislative action only upon the most careful advise" 
laent of its Board of direction. 

With these cheering hopes, Gentlemen of the Faculty, we this day 
commit the interests of the University into your hands. And we 
welcome you to your new field of labor ; we pray blessings upon your 
©Sorts ; and pledge to you our cordial sympathy and support. When 
joii feel the burdens of official responsibility, we will come at your call, 
U hold up your hands. We greet you now with words of cheer ; and 
amid labor and trial, through all the vicissitudes of cloud and sunshine, 
follow only where duty leads : 

*' Your steady course of honor keep 

If or fear the rocka—nor seek the shore." 



17 



RESPONSE OP PRESIDENT MINOR. 



Mr. Cliairman and oilier Curators : — This impressive occasion haa 
just been characterised as one of peculiar dignity and importance. 
For more than two months I have looked forward to it with the deep- 
est interest. It was natural and right that I should ; not only because 
of the general circumstances which now surround us anl which havo 
been so forcibly presented, but because I was apprised that I would 
be expected to reply to the splendid address which you have this day 
heard. Were I capable of replying, in any strict sense of the terra, 
to such an effort, — ■ as appropriate and artistic in its conception as it 
is able and elegant in its execution, — I could hardly venture to do sa 
without some direct preparation for the task ; which I could not well 
have made unless I had had some intimation of what the eloquent 
gentleman intended to introduce. This, however, has been entirely 
prevented by various circumstances ; and you have had as early an 
opportunity as I of knowing that to which it was designed that I 
should respond. I can, at least, succeed the gifted gentleman ; and 
cordially thanking you and him for all that has been done by you 
and so well said for you, in installing me and my associates in the 
honorable and valued positions which we this day assume, by your 
authority, I invite your attention and that of this enlightened audi- 
ence to some thoughts which 1 have digested since I reached your 
everflowing western waters ; and partly, since I reached this favored 
town. They may prove, from the currents of thought that each of us 
has pursued, not wholly unsuitable even as a response. 

For the second time, fellow Missourians, I have the honor to be 
within the borders of your potential State. Potential I say, not so 
much for that to which she has already attained, great and gratifying 
as that certainly is, as for her teeming and progressive future. 

Fifteen years ago, I came hither partly to enlarge my o;vn range 
of information and acquaintance, and partly to endeavor to promote 
the cause of Southern and American Literature. Then, I merely so- 
journed a short time in your sainted emporium and enjoyed some 
experience of her hospitalities. Now, I come to dwell among you, to 
identify myself with you and to cooperate with you in earnest efforts 
for the highest welfare of you and yours and me and mine. 



18 

That Saint Louis, whose prospects had akeady allured to her 
some of my early friends and compeers, and had even been presented 
to me to influence my own selection of a theatre for action in life, 
could at that time boast of only forty or fifty thousand souls. Now, 
she counts her one hundred and sixty thousand, a population suffi- 
cient of itself to sustain a State University; and her Fair Grounds 
now contain in one day more people than she then environed. 

This Institution, then in its babyhood, now has her alumni in 
the councils of the State and engaged in advancing education and 
other good works in various parts of the Country. But is St. Louis 
the only city, is ours the only State, which exhibits these signs of 
growth and enterprise? Far from it. In every direction, in the old 
portions cf cm- country and the new, are evidences of the same spirit 
and progress. I have just seen them, in different degrees, from the 
Atlantic border to your very doers. What has called forth all these 
activities ? American mind animating and informing American mus- 
cle. What shall consecrate all these activities and make mental and 
physical America, — old America and young, — discharge their whole 
duty to themselves, to mankind and to posterity, but properly educa- 
ting American mind, that it may impart the right direction to the 
titanic energies of our native and our immigrant strength and skill ? 
— properly educating it religiously, morally and intellectually. These 
edifices, these halls, this honoring assembl}'', these ceremonies attest 
the fact, that this great truth is appreciated by you and the other friends 
and the founders of this University. 

Therefore, as friends of an enlightened collegiate education we 
greet you. As friends and patrons of "the University of the State of 
Missouri," as one of the approved agencies in securing and conferring 
such an education, we most cordially greet you. In your honoring 
presence we have just received from her Curators, through their most 
worthy and eloquent representatives, these symbols of authority and 
our commission as guides and instructors of all who shall here recog- 
nise her instrumentality in training them for the tasks, responsibilities 
and privileges of life. We hold it to be a high commission ; and with 
the blessing of Heaven and the support of a large hearted and liberal- 
handed people, we mean to illustrate it and make it effective. In 
striving for its laurels, we shall not shrink from its duties or its labors. 
The greatest occupation of an immortal mind is teaching, {in its 
comprehensive sense,) other immortal minds; and the highest duty 
and privilege of an accountable being is learnwg, in its large and preg- 
nant meaning. The first teacher of man must have been his maker, 
who doubtless had other pupils, of a higher order, before him, and has 



19 

them still. ^^11611 lie made man ■' only a little lower ' than his other 
pupils, the angels, — he placed him as it were in a grand University 
and commenced with him a sublime course of instruction ; which he 
(noTi- employing chiefly human instrumentalities) continues to this 
day by His works, His word and His spirit; — thus favoring him with 
both His direct and indirect agency and influence in promoting his 
mental and moral improvement. What were and what would have 
been Hi-; methods of instruction to man in his un fallen estate, it is 
useless to conjecture; but we ma}^ feel assured that at the outset of 
his history man was endowed, no less than now, with all those capac- 
ities and faculties, whose exhibitions still render him so God-like ; 
and that he was, at a very early period, surrounded by the elements 
and germs of every department of human knowledge. " The spacious 
firmament on high " spread before him the splendors and wonders of 
astronomy ; the gorgeous flora of Eden and the ruder products of out- 
side nature invited him to all the beauties and wonders of botany; 
our own bright orb was then presenting and undergoing, — many of 
them in a form more intelligible than now, — her wondrous and 
stupendous mineralogical and geological formations and transitions ; 
in his state of innocence he commenced the study of natural history 
by naming the animals freshly created ; his own nature forced him to 
think of the mysteries of his being and of his relations to his Creator 
and to all else that He had made, and necessarily initiated him into the 
enquiries of mental and moral philosophy ; and every phenomenon 
around him invited him to explore and to solve it. Hence, I have 
said that he was placed in a grand University. The department of 
foreign earthly languages v/as for some time wanting ; but yet vvdio can 
say with what bright foreign realms and in what mellifluous tongues 
the inhabitants of Eden might'have held intercourse, had they not 
brought into the world '' all our woe." What the once universal 
language was would be idle speculation ; but if present indications are 
worth any thing and any one language is to prevail upon earth in the 
days of the millenium, the English bids as fair as any to be this univer- 
sal tongue. This thought, however weak you may deem it, cannot, at 
least, lessen the many other inducements to cultivate our noble Saxon 
speech ; and I rejoice that so prominent a position has been assigned 
to it, in the organization of this Institution ; whilst the liberal utilities 
of other tongues, living and dead, are neither oveilcokcd nor under- 
rated. 

Brethren of the Faculty, what God hath thought worthy for 
Him to commence is surely most worthy for us to aid in carrying on. 



20 



Curators, your commission makes us co-workers with Him, as well a& 
with you, and we will glory in it. 

This imposing assembly may, in its relations to this Institution^ 
be divided into the governing and the governed; the teaching and 
the taught; patrons and pupils, and a few words spoken of, or ad- 
dressed LO, each class. Moreover, the occasion seems to render it 
proper to define what are some of the fundamental principles for the 
guidance of those who are engaged in wielding such an agency for 
moral improven:ient. 

There is one constituent of this assembly, of which we are all th& 
constituents; and which mu.t by no means be overlooked because ifc 
is invisible. It is He, " in whom we live, move and have our being: " 
the first and chief governing power here as ever}- where: a power that 
will govern whether we wish or not : a power that ought to govern, 
not only with our cheerful acquiescence, but with our earnest and 
constant invocations. 

There are nece&sarily some restrictions here in regard tosectsrian- 
ism ; but there is not any opposition or disregard towards the Chris- 
tian religion. 

Religion must have some modes of outward expression, of perpet- 
uation and extension. Nor are these modes of small consequence, nor 
wholly, nor even chiefiy, of human appointment. There must be^ 
churches and rites and ceremonies. The Savior of the world and 
his inspired apostles established a church; and as the christian 
religion is of universal obligation, universal applicabilily, univer- 
sal need and efficnc}', for all time, they must have known vhat was 
best and best adapted to the nature and wants of mankind, in 
reference to the enjoyment, the propagation and the perpetuation of 
Christianity. llence ii is not unreasonable to suppose that the 
organization vvdiich they instituted, if we could all agree as to what it 
"was, would commend itself even now to universal adoption; and that 
that denomination of christians would be nearest right, who ap- 
proached nearest in doctrine, discipline, worship and polity, to the di- 
vine and apostolic model. Still there must have been christians before 
a church, else there would have been no materials out of Vvhich and 
no subjects for which to form one; as there are moral and metai^hysical 
truths anterior to and independent of revelation, as has been shown 
by the learned speaker wlio preceded me. 

What denomination now comes nearest to this model, is certainly 
no unmeaning nor unimportant enquiry ; but it is not one proper for me, 
or any of my esteemed associates, at this or any other time, save as 
private individuals. Even were it proper, we would be greatly hin- 



21 

<lered by our own imperfections and Ihose of others ; as so much of 
what we prize as religious truth must, afier all. come to us through 
fallible media. God's pure Truth is like the clear and compound 
rays of the sun; but man's mind lil^e the prism separates it into va- 
rious colors of his own captivating theories, often so attractive to their 
authors that they fall in love with their beauties, as when children 
admire the gorgeous and fleeting rainbow more than the glorious, 
colorless light of heaven. 

We know as a fact that christians have arrived at various and 
different conclusions and practices; and that Christendom is divided 
into numerous and too often rival and hostile sects, each having their 
organizations, their places of worship, and their educational and oth- 
er benificent institutions by which to promote and secure moral good. 
But still, are there not demands and inducements for many combined 
and affiliated efforts ? In view of all these divisions and differences, 
not likely soon if ev-r to cease, if there were not some general types 
and principles upon which all christians of every name could unit© 
and co-operate in ordaining and extending sound agencies for the 
benefit and advancement of our species, we might despair of Christen- 
dom, as we might of this great republic, if amid all her distriictions of 
parties and sections^ there were not cardinal, national and constitu- 
tional principles enough upon which all true patriots cotild stand and 
stand forever. 

It is right and proper for each denomination to establish and 
maintain educational institutions, in which tiiere can be a more di- 
rect and distinctive religious instruction tban can be attained in a 
general state establishment. Bat every state has her duties to dis- 
charge to her children, amon^ which that of providing them with lib- 
eral means of the highest intellectual culture is well recognized here, 
as elsev.-here, to be one of the most imperative. In performing this 
solemn trust, a state can not, nor can those who rspresent her, evince 
any sectarian or denominational bias ; for whilst God grant that ours 
may always be a religious nation, and thereby become more and more 
highly'- exalted, may He also grant that we may never have a nation- 
al religion. Yet a state can have, should have and dare not but have 
her every institution, even her government, a Christian one, 

I have not the least disposition to usurp the functions of the sa- 
cred desk ; nor on tills or any o:her occasion to preach a sermon. 
But this subject is so important that less could hardly have been said 
upon it. Even now some kindred points remain to be presented, 
which, however, I am sure you will clieerfuily pardon from their inti- 



22 

mate connection with the subjects embraced in that department over 
which I have the honor to preside. 

Of course, we mean here to teach Literatm^e and the Sciences in 
their most advanced stages, with all the newest discoveries and views 
that are well founded and can stand the test of examination. Bat in 
what spirit in reference to divine Revelation ? Shall we teach physi- 
cal science in the spirit of the ''Vestiges of the Natural Historj^ of Cre- 
ation?"' Shall we teach ethnology in the spirit of the authors of 
''Types of Mankind ;" or in that of a Cabell, a Pendleton, and a Cur- 
tis ? Shall we teach Geology in the spirit of cavil and scepticism ? 
Astronomy in that of a mere grandiloquent deism ? Ethics in that 
of a barren utilitarianism or even an enlightened self love ? Meta- 
physics in that of atheism, or pantheism ? 

The evidences of the Christian Revelation as contained in the 
Bible are now better established than the foundations of any sup- 
posed inconsistent new discovery, or fact, in physical science can be; 
and so of all the speculations and supposed demonstrations of meta- 
physical science. If they be consistent with revelation and sufficient- 
ly supported, very well, embrace them. If iiiconsistent, reject them ; 
and seek and expose the fallacies in which they are entrenched. 
Revelation being true all other moral truth must be compatible with 
it; and if the human mind reason correctly its results will be consis- 
tent with it. If they be inconsistent, it must have reasoned inaccu- 
rately and falsely. No fact in any science is more fixed than this one 
in moral science, that without the aid of Revelation the most gifted 
intellects could not reason correctly on moral subjects; and many of 
their once favorite teachings are now universally admitted to have 
been idle dreams, or dangerous fallacies. For this valuable rectifica- 
tion of their reasonings we are justly indebted to Revelation, which 
thus becomes the test and the touchstone of all ethical and meta- 
physical investigation. 

In order not to be misunderstood a qualification here becomes 
necessary. AVhilst the human mind should abide in unshaken faith 
in the Truth of Divine Revelation as contained in the "sacred oracles," 
despite all the incompatible utterances of science, either physical or 
metaphysical, yet it may justly permit its hitherto received interpreta- 
tions of holy scripture to be modified by a sufficient weight of testimo- 
ny, or of reasoning, from either class of science. Revelation itself is 
from God and must stand ; so that if any science present a supposed 
fact, or discovery, or an approved theory, that can not after fair and 
candid criticism be reconciled with any just interpretation of scrip- 
ture, it should be rejected. But the interpretation is often fallible 



23 

man's work and may be moilified oi* changed, when the brightening 
light of advancing human knowledge has rendered it necessary and 
proper. 

There is a further relationship between the disclosures of Reve- 
lation and the deductions of reason too interesting and important to 
be omitted. Some persons claiming to rank as judicious and scien- 
tific admit quite readily what tiiey deem to be the demonstrations of 
natural theology ; but pause and doubt, and reject wliatever tliat from 
its impotency fails to unfold, but which Eevelation amply supplies. 
At the same time, thsy cordially embrace as truths demonstrated by 
their own reasoning a thousand things which unaided reason could 
never have certified to them ; and which reason has only in fact, by 
being guided, often unconsciously, by the light of God's Holy Word, 
been able to arrive at as satisfactory to herself. 

If any supposed principle of natural theolog}^ were really repug- 
nant to the fairly interpreted declarations of the Bible, I would, as al- 
ready stated, have it rejected forthwith. In truth, they are bound to 
v^alk and bless our earth hand in hand, in love and harmony, as far 
as natural religion can go : then Kevelation takes up the matter and the 
mystery and throws upon it new light from the fountain of all moral 
and spiritual illumination. 

The relations between natural religion and revealed with the uses 
that some would erroneously make of the former, may be illustrated 
by an annular eclipse. From our carthlj point ol view the sun seems 
to be darkened by the moon ; as some suppose that the light of natu- 
ral religion shuts out that of revealed. But even then the sun's radi- 
ence pours itself all around the opposing bodj^, and illumes, by its 
very exces.?, the world which that body has overshadowed. So when 
those who boast of their reliance upon reason and natural religion, op- 
pose themselves to revelation, she pours her heavenly effulgence all 
outside of and beyond their furthest verge of thought and illumines 
the world and them despite themselves. This takej place when view- 
ed as it were from the wrong side; but what dazzling and uninterrupt- 
ed splendor would we behold if wo could only get between the sun 
and moon and vSee f.ach, full-orbed, pouring its lustre upon us : the 
moon, however, in fact receiving the splendor which she gives. It is 
thus that natural religion and revealed, when viewed in their true 
and internal relations, not only harmonize and conspire instead of 
one eclipsing the other; but natural religion derives its farthest reach- 
ing and most certain light from the revealed word of God. 

It is under the guidance of these general principles, most respect- 
ed Curators, that T shall ask your sanction of the instructions in men- 



24 

tal and moral philosophy which I shall endeavor to impart to the stu- 
dents of this University. Within the legitimate limits prescribed by 
them, the greatest boldness of research and freedom of inquiry will 
be both practised and encouraged. 

Tho supreme governing power of whom I have spoken hath or- 
dained other powers over this University, which is amenable to and 
under the control of the State Legislature. To them it would be nei- 
ther becoming nor proper for me to say much. They declare and, I 
believe, mosfe sincerely, that they have the best interests of the insti- 
tution deeply at heart ; and that so far from abandoning or inj uring her, 
they are only desirous of putting her upon a higher career of usefulness 
and honor. After all they have done, what remains but to watch the 
fruits of their action with ''masterly inactivity;" remembering that 
moral good is of slow and gradual growth and that it is eo truly pre- 
cious that comparatively little of i-} is w^orth avast amount of treasure 
and of Well directed exertion. 

My friends, a good college of high order is the noblest sort of in- 
ternal improvement. It may train a master spirit who shall mould 
and impress his country and his own and future times; and will cer- 
tainly set nuclei of refinement and culture all over a state. But a 
college can not be built up (save the mere architectural structure) 
like a rail-road. The latter can surely be completed and made to an- 
swer the ends for which it was projected, if you only furnish sufBcienfc 
capital ; whilst money and energetic men sometimes fail to give suc- 
cess to a literary institution. 

It is true that we have a magnificent field and the strongest incen- 
tives ; but yet there are no small obstacles to immediate or even quick 
success. The ultimate predominance of the west is inevitable ; and 
recently on an important occasion, an able eastern divine declared 
that in the future development and destiny of the great west it would 
be better for all the country east of the Mississippi, with all that it 
now is and all that it now has, to be submerged in the ocean, than for 
the moral and religious character of this immense and more important 
field to be neglected. We must not neglect it. But many amongst 
our people who are patrons of colleges are dependent upon the products 
of the earth which are sometimes seriously affected, as at present, by 
unpropitious seasons. Many have ties and affiliations in the older 
states, and prefer that their children should have the satisfaction and 
the prestige of finishing their education there. Moreover, many 
schools of high order, equal to many colleges, have there been plant- 
ed right on the side of the leading thoroughfares of travel; and rail- 
roads have, in many states, penetrated to the very doors of long estab- 



25 

lished colleges and universities; whilst this is comparatively anew 
institution, in the interior of a comparatively new State. And yet 
ne\f as she is, flourishing denominational establishments already crown 
most of the eligible points vrithin her borders. Scill we will work and 
wait. Missouri h-rs youths enough to supply her University, when 
they become conr inced that she can best supply them. Virginia alone 
sent last year three 4iur-dred and thirty-eight to her University, be- 
sides the goodly numbers she sent to her military institute and to hei* 
numerous other colleges and high academies. She, too, without the 
-aid of federal or county endowment, besides founding and fostering 
her noble University and her no le^s flourishing military school, has 
establishsd and miintains on state account an institution for the 
deaf and dumb and the blind, and three for the insane. What, then, 
can not Missouri, with her capabilities and her liberality, do for and 
with her State University ; at whose doors may, perhaps, before very 
many years be welcomed car-loads of ingenuous students ? 

While the General Assembly of Missouri are the dispensers of Con- 
gresriLGnal bounty, in establishing and controlling this noble founda- 
tion, yet the scope and sphere of University effort and training far 
transcend all mei-e party relations. Our business is in no way connec- 
ted with, but is wholly aside from, and far above, party politics. With 
them it is no wish nor purpose of ours to intermeddle, or to entangle 
the great eiucationalinterests confided to our cure with the partizan 
contests of the hour. 

In the discussion of those fundamental cardinal principles which 
underli? our benefi 3ent system of government and which w^ill neces- 
sarily claim attention in the course of college instruction, we trust to 
prove ourselves, and to render our students, entirely sound, conserv- 
ative, and true to all the vital interests of o'j-r country and of every 
portion of it. 

Whilst w^e have a right to march under a banner inscribed upon 
one side in burnished letters, 

''in the south and fopw the south," 
we are not only willing but desirous to see perpetacMi/ emblazoned on 
the other, 

"in tue uxiox and for the uniox." 
In our moral and political teachings, then, the constant purpose 
and eSbrt shall be to lead oar youthful charge into the paths of loyal 
patriotism and of true christian tliought; and to furnish them with 
such general principles as will not fetter their judgments, but fit them 
the better to embrace sound and right moral and political ideas ; — 



26 

holding that above all other considerations all the ends at which thejr 
aim should be their "Country's, God's and Truth's." 

The Legislature have confided us to the care and watchful super- 
vision of the Board of Curators ; the next governing power with which 
we have to do. You, Curators, are our fathers. Be our friends. Let 
confidence subsist between us. We may err. We are almost sure to 
err; and you are sure to hear of it ; and sometimes perhaps rumors of 
errors maj'- reach you, when we have not really done anything amiss. 
Tell us of these things frankly but kindly. Give us a fair trial and a 
fair hearing. If then we can not endure the test and enjoy your 
smiles, let us receive your merited frowns. You can aid us by your 
counsels; strengthen us by your encouragements; fortify us by your 
co-operation and cheer us with your sympathies. Without troubling 
you at present, for w^e can readily approach you with our suggestions 
when we are better prepared to make them, we tender to you our af- 
fectionate as well as most respectful salutations. 

In concluding the list of governing powers, we come to the Facul- 
ty, and now it becomes our " day." Two classes may now be embraced,, 
the teachers and students. So, young gentlemen, let us for awhile 
"bar out" the Legislature and the Curators and have the L'^niversity all 
to ourselves. Of the Faculty as governors, I shall say very little ; for 
in that capacity, it will be ours to act rather than talk. Yf e trust that 
our sway will be so mild and genial as scarcely to be felt by our willing 
subjects, and that all the "Missouri restrictions" here imposed will prove 
to be so just, judicious and constitutional, that none will . ever wish 
them to be repealed. We mean to frame and enforce all our regula- 
tions solely for your good aad that of the Public; and obedience will 
be ahsohitehj indispensable. Those who come under our governance will, 
if tliey so elect, be more under our care than our control; and we had 
far rather guide them with a shepherd's crook than rule them with 
the power of these keys, or with any baton of authority ; and we 
commend to them especially that symbol of paternal love and pro- 
tection ; whilst we would not diminish aught of the interest they 
should take in the sceptre and thunderbolt of Jove ; the trident of 
Neptune; the wand of Mercury ; the fasces and the axe of Rome; or 
any other symbol of power and authority, human or superhuman, 
classic or modern. • 

Before we open our doors, even foi' our worthy patrons, let me 
impress upon you one or two points. In the first place, let me incite 
you to the assertion of your rights. 

Many, if not most, young men when they enter College, hear a 
great deal of their duties and expect to be forced to perform them ; 



27 

and regard their teachers as hostile to them, — as aVjridgcrs of their 
rights and lawful sports ; and suppose that therefore they have the 
right to oppose and circumvent them so far as they can with success 
and impunity. My j'oung friends, this is a groat and dangerous mis- 
take. You have a n'r/ht to be governed arhjkt. When you come to take 
possession of your patrimony, to be men, fathers, guides and guardians 
of others ; law makers, judges, teachers and profes3or3, you will 
esteem the functions you have to discharge in all these honorable 
capacities as your cherished rights and privileges; and what is the 
necessary assistance in preparing you for the proper enjoyment and 
performance of all these but attendant and collateral rights and pri- 
vileges? Of course, they involve duties, — high and sacred duties; 
but these will be greatly lightened and brightened, if you will irradiate 
them with cheering thoughts of their accompanying and consequent 
rights and privileges. You have no right to do wrong, have you? 
Certainly not. Then, if IVom your weakness and inexperience you be 
in danger of doing or going wrong, is it not your right to be guided 
into the path of rectitude and safety ? Moreover, can one bo reallj" 
and permanently benefitted by doing or going wrong ? Certainly not. 
Then if from temptation or any other cause you were about to go 
astray, and inliicb an injury upon yourselves and those bound up with 
you, wOuld it not be a blessing and a privilege for you to be prevented ? 
Yes, my precious young friends, we are all dependent and affiliated 
beings and entitled to the assistance and guidance of each other. 
Ignorance is entitled to the help of knowledge ; weakness, of strength ; 
poverty, of wealth; sickness, of health and medical skill ; youth and 
inexperience, of wisdom and age; the boy, of the man. If you were 
not able to master a difficult lesson, would you not feel manifestly 
entitled to the assistance of your professor ; and think that he was in 
part set here for the very purpose of rendering it? Upon precisely 
the same principle you are entitled to his aid in performing any other 
right action, in relation to your studentship ; for hearnig lessons is not 
the sole object for which he is set over you and the Institution. Getting 
lessons at College is certainly very riglit and proper, and you can not 
get them too perfestly ; but it is not the only right and useful thing 
there ; and if you are entitled to be aided in one right matter that 
springs out of your relations to th@ Institution of which you are mem- 
bers, by the same principle are you entitled to be aided in discharging 
other right matters, springing from the same relations. 

Then cheerfully and manfully assume and fulfil all your collegiate 
duties ; with a steady and penetrating look to the future of yourselves, 
your families, your state, your country and the great brotherhood of 



28 

mankind: assert your rights: claim and appreciate your privileges; 
and what would otherwise press as burdens will be largely transform- 
ed into pleasures. 

In the next place, let me put you up to some points of honor and 
gentlemanly bearing. For a student at College to be charged with 
anything dishonorable fills him with indignation and even induces 
him to risk his life to avenge his wounded honor. But have you ever 
known, or heard of, a youth who would knock you down, or stab, or 
shoot you, if you dared insult him, as he supposed, who would yet 
clandestinely, habitually violate the laws which he knew to be whole- 
some and proper, and teach and tempt others to do the same ; who 
would cheat his professor, even at an examination for graduation, by 
smuggling his text book into the room and taking answers from it; 
who broke, without apparent compunction, the solemn promises he 
had made his mother, to read his bible regularly, not to swear, not to 
drink, not to play cards; and sometimes played cards on the very 
table that held his neglected Bible and his College books not much 
more disturbed ; who spent more money in treating', extravagance and 
dissipation than he knew his parents, or guardian, could afford ; who 
under the pietext of fun and frolic, actually stole the property of sur- 
rounding neighbors and secretly shared it with his peers ; and com- 
mitted like indiscretions, of various grades. Now, where}'s the idlegianco 
of such an one to the genuine law of honor ? There is a genuine law 
of honor. Learn it ; follow it; cherish it; but be consistent and apply 
it in ALL your conduct. 

As to gentlemanly bearing : it is a sweat and smoothing thing in 
a rough and roughening worLl A great deal has been said about 
making young men gentlemen uy treating them as such. If by treat- 
ing them as such be meant shoeing them in your treatment how to 
be such, it is correct; far you thereby gradually lead them to be 
gentlemen, if they have the proper basis; and until it is foand out 
that they have it not, it is best to give them the benefit of the sup- 
position that they have. Vv^hen, hor»'ever, sad experience shows that 
they have it not, then it is unavoidable to treat them as you find them 
and apply ^^ similia similibusy Some j'-ouths so early exhibit true gentili- 
ty that they never require any leading or showing and we wonder at 
the earliness of so preci^)us an acquisition. But unfortunately, on the 
other hand, all young men do not become gentlemen ; and so perverse 
is poor human nature and so resistent sometimes of all good influences, 
that too often the sons of true gentlemen are not gentlemen. My 
young friends, be young gentlemen and v^^e will gladly meet you more 
than half way. Should any one unfortunately madly prefer to be 



\ 



29 

otherwise, it will still be our reluctant duty to meet him also more 
than half-way, on the groat principle that prevention is preferable to 
cure. 

We trust sincerely, that w^ien the students of this University, ia 
all its departments, understand that we mean, with kindness and yet 
with firmness and decision, to guide and train as well as teach them, 
they will cheerfully let us do so without difficury or opposition. It is 
their duty, their interest, their right, their honor and their glory 
to do so. You have heard to day a masterly exposition of the power 
of v/ords. Do not these words suggest to you the highest motives and 
inducements known to the department of Moral Science? 

Having finished our private conference, let us throw open again, 
the doori of th}s fine chapel and welcome not only patrons, bnt our 
fair fellow-students of the neighboring "Groves" and "Academies;'^ 
of whom w« are proud to see so large a number honoring U3 with their 
presence. It is a wise and masterly policy to let female education 
accompany, or even precede, that of the rougher sex; for let the love- 
ly and tender portion of our race be "polished after the similitude of a 
palace" and all is safe : cultivated and refined mothers will not be con- 
tented with uncultivated sons or daughters; nor will cultivated and 
refined daughters endure ignorant and boorish companions for life. 

In securing the desirable ends at which we aim, a vast deal will 
depend upon the patrons of this University, — especially her local 
patrons, who can exercise a direct salutary influence both over their 
own children and those who are taken as boarders into their families. 
If they have a just appreciation of the true objects for which they or 
any one else should send their sons to college, they cannot fail to co- 
operate most willingly and zealously with tho faculty under whom 
they are placed. The system pursued here of quartering the students 
in the families of many of the most respectable citizens, whilst it will 
have a very good effect socially, may tend to relax discipline ^y the 
feeling of reluctance which those citizens may naturally have to coun- 
sel and restrain those whom they receive as boarders; — a feeling 
sometimes carried so far as, from mistaken kindness, even to conceal 
faults tiiat ought to be known in order to be corrected. I say this is a 
natural feeling, because we are all apt to shrink from assummg a 
troublesome disciplinary authority, whose exercise we can turn over to 
others;and especially over those who make pecuniary compensation for 
what is done for them and are mere sojourners. But this feeling can- 
not be indulged in the present case either with propriety or safety. 
By receiving these youthr>, most of whose characters are yet unformed, 
around your firesides, you stand in an especial manner in the place of 



their absent parents and guardians ; and it would be a sad miscon- 
ception of your duty and interest, too, if after attracting thera to you 
by your social excellences, you did not aid us in keeping tliem true 
and firm to the good purposes which brought them hither. Indeed, 
the very social advantages of our beautiful and hospitable town may, 
by your neglect, be converted into instruments to wound the prospects 
of the University. For if the students are drawn off, or permitted to 
wander off, from the steady pursuit of the grand objects which should 
bring them hither, so that they do not by their literary and scientific 
progress and their moral deportment, convince their parents, guardi- 
ans and friends that this is the place for well-spent time and well 
improved opportunities, not only will our halls be comparatively 
deserted, but a powerful reaction against our institution will inevita- 
bly take place; and we, in a measure without any just culpability, be 
visited with public opprobium. My friends," these things ought not so 
to be." Moreover, if the people of Columbia build up this University, 
as far as they really can by pursuing their true and enlarged (not 
mere temporary) interests as connected with it, there is nothing surer 
than that it will build up Columbia. Nor stop at the bounds of mere 
utility and expediency; but go with us a step farther. No doubt you 
prize the beauties of your town as well as its other advantages ; and 
by the value you place upon every pleasant thing about you, aid us in 
adorning our grounds, and in preserving this Institution and all its 
surroundings from every sort of desecration, that we may all enjoy 
that delightful perpetuity of which the poet speaks, when he says " a 
thing of beauty is a joy forever." 

Though Columbians can thus make us friends far and wide and 
prove the nucleus and the basis of our greatest success, they can not 
supply all our patrons. Without patrons we can do nothing. We 
hope to win them and shall not beg them. I am gratified at the 
foundation upon which we here have to build and make due ac- 
kno/vledgments to our most honorable predecessors who have laid it 
for us. Our part, however, is with the present and the future, not the 
past. To our noble work we cordially address ourselves, that we may 
make your sons worthy of your daughters and that future generations 
may rise up and call this University blessed. It is not the chief value of a 
liberal education that it makes our sons great, or aids them to be so. 
Its benefits are far greater than this, in being both more estensive and 
diffusive. Whether with or without education, a ver}^ few compara- 
tively can make for themselves a great name, or occupy conspicuous 
positions in life. It is the multitudes below these who generate and 
perpetuate all those influences which in the main control the world. 



31 

The amenities of life, the cultivation and refinements of civilization 
<lepend for the most part upon the educated men and women who 
are never heard of beyond their own luminous private circles. But 
ah ! how there tliey glow and shine ; vivify and adorn everything 
around them ! Whilst it is true that many of the greatest men liave 
arisen to fame under the most signal hindrances, yet the majority of 
eminent men have enjoyed the highest advantages of education. A 
native diamond is really precious notwithstanding its roughness; but 
when it is cut and polished, though smaller, it is more valuable, beau- 
tiful and useful. If a few without opportunities for mental culture 
make their mark upon the world, instead of being encouraged by this 
thought to neglect or underrate the precious privileges whicli we hold 
out to your cliildren, only think of the vast number upon whom Ihe 
world makes its mark, and keeps them down forever; and from whose 
unmarked sod ascends the melancholy dirge : 

" Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 
Some heart once pregnant with celestial lire ; 

Hands that the rod of empire might havesv/ayed. 
Or wak'd to ecstasy the living Ija-e. 

" But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
Kich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll ; 

Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 
And froze the genial current of the soul. ' 

A highly gifted few may overcome the providential obstacles 
which beset them and attain to even greater eminence, but multi- 
tudes though favored with the highest advantages are overcome in 
the struggles of life and perish beneath the requisitions of their lot. 
An infant Hercules may strangle the serpents that are sent to destroy 
him ; whilst the priestly Laocoon and his sons are crushed within the 
circling folds of those that are directed to r.ssail them. But if any 
thing can save the young it is a thorough moral, intellectual and re- 
ligious education, which, Dcodalus-like, supplies them with the wings of 
strength and hope and teaches their possessor so to use them as not to 
fall into any Icarian sea, warning them b}^ its pleasant lore of the fate of 
him, who though winged by paternal skill and with a father's in- 
junctions and a father's flight before his eyes to guide him, forsook 
the path of safety and was lost in the reluctant waves. 

It is, however, a matter not only of felicitation, but of patriotic 
exultation, that there arc such vast numbers in our country, upon 
whom we need press no such arguments in support of the aids which 
a liberal education can impart ; for young and practical as she is, and 



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82 



money seeking as she is represented, she has done so much for intellec- 
tual culture and dedicated to it so much of her wealth, that, for her 
time of life, it is truly astonishing; and that culture, too, already com- 
bines in a most gratifying degree the useful and the sesthetical. So 
that at the early age of only eighty four years, she is in many import- 
ant respects a grtat normal school for the other nations. The debt, if 
any, which sbe owed to Louis Philippe for his instructions here, she 
has more than repaid by those which she imparted to him and to- 
Louis Napoleon. A liberator of Italy has learned lessons of freedom 
and good government from her glorious institutions. These went 
down amongst her people, where they«could learn the important les- 
sons whicii she had to teach them. Still we trust that the hasty tip- 
topping which Lord Renfrew is making of her,her people and institu- 
tions, may yet be of some service to a future monarch of our mother 
country. But more remarkable than all, the Japanese, secluded for 
so many centuries from nearly all the rest of mankind, have now 
cheei fully put their whole nation as it were to school to her: an ex- 
hibition, one of the most wonderful and interesting yet recorded in 
hiotoiy. 

In arts, in science, in literature, in polity, in public morals even^ 
in public enterprise and improvements ; in private and social qualities; 
in every respect, at least relatively and coynijaratively^ we have amrgnilicent 
lieiitiige, of which we may all feel most' justly proud. Let us, then^ 
take most earnest heed in our respective stations through life that she 
shall never have cause to be ashamed of any of us. 



JT0 T M€ SI . 

The next annual Commencenaent of the University, will be celebrated on 
Thursday, the 4th of July, 186L 

On the previous day the Society of the Alunoni will be addressed bj 
Hon. Henry Clay Cockerill, of Platte county. 

Alma Mater will expect a full gathering of iier sons on that occasion,, 
and will oirit no effort to Ecake the re-union one of deep and grateful inter- 
est to the members of the association. 

The University has opened auspiciously, under its new organization^- 
with abundant evidences of public favor and confidence. A large attendance 
of her former students andof tke friends of education, throughout the State,. 
on the solemnities of Commencement week, is A'ery cordially invited. 



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028 308 331 7 



S.pfiisi0»ii' Mi ®iiitij:ii. 



BEGINNING Oi:' THE SESSION, ..... OCT. 1st. 

ENDING OF THE SESSION, JULY 4tii. 

TUITION AT THE UNIVERSITY, $33 00 

TUITION AT THE PRIMARY DEPARTMENT, . ^20 00 



